PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ACADEMY 



I. 



THE GOSPELS OF MAC EEGOL OF BIEE : A STUDY IN 

 CELTIC ILLUMINATION. 



By the EEV. SAMUEL HEMPHILL, Litt. D. 



Plates I-V. 



Read I^ovembeu 14, 1910. Publishefl January 21, 1911. 



The town of Birr, in the territory of Ely O'Carroll, was the seat of a 

 monastery founded by St. Brendan, who died a.d. 571. He was a contem- 

 porary of his namesake of Clonfert ; and they had been fellow-students at 

 Clonard under St. Finian. He was reckoned the prophet of Ireland,' and 

 also enjoyed in an especial manner the friendship of St. Columba. Indeed 

 there is an ancient tradition that it was he who first advised Columba to 

 select lona for his retirement.^ The Elijah legend recounted in The Annals 

 of the Ponr Masters, that Brendan of Birr (a.d. 553) was seen ascending in 

 a chariot into the sky, sufficiently indicates the great reverence for this saint. 

 Of the Monastery of Birr there are no visible traces ; but the old well 

 of St. Brendan still bubbles up out of a shelf of rock within a couple of feet of 

 the river Camcor ; and some ancient foundations were recently struck quite 

 near it, when the electric plant was being prepared for the lighting of Birr 

 Castle ; so that one would not be surprised if the cells of Brendan's monks 

 were once in great numbers on that pleasant site, or if the shrubs and trees 

 now clothing the place had their roots growing out of the habitations, and 

 perhaps the bones, of those holy men of old. 



iTJsshev, Works, iv, p. 473. - Ihid., p. 240. 



R.I.A. PBGC, VOL. XXIX., SECT. C [IJ 



